Shoe Installation

I installed my new shoes last Saturday. Here's a picture of Kathleen's pair (which went on after our Labor Day row). To expose the innards, the insoles are out, the tongues are pulled forward, and the velcro "lace" flaps are pulled over.

To take advantage of the original footpads, Don sent a single bolt setup: a rather wide, round, flat head with a washer and a nyloc nut. To tighten the thing down, I had to use a lock wrench on the head. I decided to keep the heel cups in place to help guide the heels and to avoid complicated change outs should Carl or anyone else row with us.

On my first trip out, the shoe twisted on me right away. I was going to have to bear down on the ratchet wrench when we got back. The second trip was better (which had me really torquing it when putting Kathleen's in). The shoes are definitely more comfortable than the single velcro strap. I didn't have to think about "catching myself" with my feet at the finish. (I bet this is confusing. Remember that we're pushing off the footpads but don't want our feet to leave the pads. We curl our toes up to keep them from slipping out from under the strap.) Kathleen has been getting some blisters on one heel, so she'll really like these. I do notice that they do their job of fixing the foot - it's rather awkward now to lean forward on a break to get my water bottle. I also needed to bring a hand towel with me to dry off after getting in the boat from our access ramp. Putting socks on dirty wet feet is hard and yucky. More incentive to get the dock arrangements worked out and installed!